Facilitating A Panel Is Not So Different Than Facilitating A Requirements Session
My First AHA Moment of 2012
Facilitation appears to be a hot topic these days. After blogging about facilitation a few months ago, I am getting many questions about best practices and how to handle certain situations. At the bottom of this post I’ll provide links to my past articles on facilitation that should address many of these questions.
Today I want to share an AHA!
Recently I was invited to speak at an event on the topic of facilitation. One of the other presentations at that conference was a typical panel presentation.
Panels are very common at conferences; they usually have three to four people and a designated moderator who helps facilitate the discussion among the panelists and engages the audience. The session typically runs about 60 minutes.
These panels tend to be very dry (yawn)
For most panels, questions are devised ahead of time and shared with the group so they can prepare their agenda, personal messaging, and so on. I should clarify, that some panels are engaging and are very interesting. But at times, I come across a panel where each person seems to be coming from his or her personal point of view. Their views may not be clearly aligned to the question. So you get someone speaking strategically, while another may be extremely tactical or even not directly speaking to the question.
Let me magnify my point. Each member of the panel will work with the moderator to identify the question(s) they would like to be asked so they can share their viewpoint on a topic. And since three or four different panelists do this as individuals, possibly at separate times, it can be dry, without a clear set of takeaways.
I want to be clear, that there are many panel presentations that are engaging and valuable. But more often than not, I personally find them dry. As an audience member, you are trying to get a grasp of the discussion topics and understand the panelists’ points of view. However the very disparate nature of the moderator’s Q&A prevents engagement between the audience and the panelists.
Changing the dynamic of a panel…
This makes me want to try something new the next time I am invited to be a panel moderator.
I would want the audience to engage more with the panelists on stage. To get more energy, the format of the panel would have to be a little different. We are used to a panelist getting asked a question, then answering their question, followed by each of the other panelists attempting to provide answers to these preset questions which they may or may not have a valuable answer for. Then it starts all over when the next question is thrown out.
With my new approach, after the question is asked, instead of always asking all the other panelists to answer the same question, I will ask the audience members to give their perspective on the panelists’ thoughts. This would raise the engagement level of the audience with the panel.
My job as a panel facilitator would be to facilitate the rhythm of the discussion between the audience and panelists. This means I must meet with the panelists before the conference to create an agenda that would allow us (facilitator and panelists) to agree on a common objective. This would enable the panel discussion’s rhythm to flow more smoothly, be less fragmented, and not break the energy of the room.
I have already outlined in past posts, that the key to the most effective facilitators is that they monitor three things: energy, rhythm and objective of the room. The same can hold true for panel moderators (aha!)
- Energy in the room: Everyone is engaged, participating and making constant progress toward accomplishing objectives. (For panels: Keep the audience engaged)
- Rhythm of dialogue: The dialogue flows, but stays focused on the initial goal of the meeting. (For panels: Make sure energy does not get broken by unrelated, fragmented questions)
- Objective of the room: Make sure the meeting stays on track and accomplishes its objective. This can be tricky since the facilitator needs to balance discussion on side topics that are helpful to the objective versus topics that derail the goal.(For panels: Make sure the questions address a common theme)
I think there would be huge value in using these fundamentals when moderating a panel discussion.
When did you last attend a panel that really impressed you and what was so unique about it?
What are your thoughts about changing the dynamic of a panel presentation?
You can find more details on facilitation best practices in my past blog posts here:
- IT as Great Facilitators – Part 1
- IT as Great Facilitators – Part 2
- IT as Great Facilitators – Part 3
- IT as Great Facilitators – Part 4
They are some of the fundamentals that I present in my regular class on Facilitation Best Practices.
Category: For Practitioners, Requirements Definition, Team Dynamics, Uncategorized